Stellarium has many data files containing such things as star catalogue data, nebula images, button icons, font files and configuration files. When Stellarium looks for a file, it looks in two places. First, it looks in the ''user directory'' for the account which is running Stellarium. If the file is not found there, Stellarium looks in the ''installation directory''<ref>The installation directory was referred to as the config root directory in previous versions of this guide</ref>. Thus it is possible for Stellarium to be installed as an administrative user and yet have a writable configuration file for non-administrative users. Another benefit of this method is on multi-user systems: Stellarium can be installed by the administrator, and different users can maintain their own configuration and other files in their personal user accounts.

Stellarium has many data files containing such things as star catalogue data, nebula images, button icons, font files and configuration files. When Stellarium looks for a file, it looks in two places. First, it looks in the ''user directory'' for the account which is running Stellarium. If the file is not found there, Stellarium looks in the ''installation directory''<ref>The installation directory was referred to as the config root directory in previous versions of this guide</ref>. Thus it is possible for Stellarium to be installed as an administrative user and yet have a writable configuration file for non-administrative users. Another benefit of this method is on multi-user systems: Stellarium can be installed by the administrator, and different users can maintain their own configuration and other files in their personal user accounts.

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== Plugins ==

== Plugins ==

Stellarium has been greatly expanded since version 0.10.2 with compiled static plug ins. By this method many add-ons for specific use can be added without modifying the program core. There are many plug ins now available that can be loaded at start up and be available within the program. as each plug in is loaded an icon is placed in the bottom menu bar. At present Version 0.12.3 there are 17 plug ins bundled with the release version of Stellarium. These include:

Stellarium has been greatly expanded since version 0.10.2 with compiled static plug ins. By this method many add-ons for specific use can be added without modifying the program core. There are many plug ins now available that can be loaded at start up and be available within the program. as each plug in is loaded an icon is placed in the bottom menu bar. At present Version 0.12.3 there are 17 plug ins bundled with the release version of Stellarium. These include:

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Telescope Control. Stellarium has a simple control mechanism for motorised telescope mounts. The user selects an object (i.e. by clicking on something - a planet, a star etc.) and presses the ''telescope go-to'' key (see section []) and the telescope will be guided to the object.

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Multiple telescopes may be controlled simultaneously.

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http://www.stellarium.org/wikiimg/UserManual/telescope_control.png

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The control interface uses the Meade or the Celestron protocol and most telescopes use either one or the other so many different brands of telescopes can be controlled. There is a third party Telescope control system going under the name of ASCOM. They provide an interface to stellarium and then translate the control into many other forms

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Multiple telescopes may be controlled simultaneously.

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''WARNING: Stellarium will not prevent your telescope from being pointed at the Sun. It is up to you to ensure proper filtering and safety measures are applied!''

AngleMeasure. Measures the angle and distance between objects on the visible screen

AngleMeasure. Measures the angle and distance between objects on the visible screen

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http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/pulsars.png

http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/pulsars.png

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When active this plug in reads the associated pulsars.json file and placeshttp://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/pulsar.png in blue around the pulsar with a name

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When active this plug in reads the associated pulsars.json file and places http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/pulsar.png in blue around the pulsar with a name

Quasars. A list of Quasars that can be displayed from an editable data base

Quasars. A list of Quasars that can be displayed from an editable data base

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When Historical SuperNova is active follow the instructions from the plugin screen to display the supernova. This may require resetting the date to the listed date.

When Historical SuperNova is active follow the instructions from the plugin screen to display the supernova. This may require resetting the date to the listed date.

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==Telescope Control==

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Stellarium has a simple control mechanism for motorised telescope mounts. The user selects an object (i.e. by clicking on something - a planet, a star etc.) and presses the ''telescope go-to'' key (see section []) and the telescope will be guided to the object.

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Multiple telescopes may be controlled simultaneously.

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TextUserInterface (TUI). A way to change many parameters from the Stellarium Program

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http://www.stellarium.org/wikiimg/UserManual/telescope_control.png

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http://barry.sarcasmogerdes.com/stellarium/TUI-entry.png

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''WARNING: Stellarium will not prevent your telescope from being pointed at the Sun. It is up to you to ensure proper filtering and safety measures are applied!''

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The text user interface is basically for the use in planetariums. When the plug in is loaded it can be opened and closed with “m”. This will pace the entry point on the lower left of the screen which may be obscured by the landscape. To use it you scroll through the options with the arrow keys and press enter when the desired function is listed.

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TimeZoneConfiguration. Used to manipulate the time zone of the display.

Files and Directories

Stellarium has many data files containing such things as star catalogue data, nebula images, button icons, font files and configuration files. When Stellarium looks for a file, it looks in two places. First, it looks in the user directory for the account which is running Stellarium. If the file is not found there, Stellarium looks in the installation directory[1]. Thus it is possible for Stellarium to be installed as an administrative user and yet have a writable configuration file for non-administrative users. Another benefit of this method is on multi-user systems: Stellarium can be installed by the administrator, and different users can maintain their own configuration and other files in their personal user accounts.

In addition to the main search path, Stellarium saves some files in other locations, for example screens shots and recorded scripts.

The locations of the user directory, installation directory, screenshot save directory and script save directory vary according to the operating system and installation options used. The following sections describe the locations for various operating systems.

Windows

installation directory By default this is C:\Program Files\Stellarium\, although this can be adjusted during the installation process.

user directory This is the Stellarium sub-folder in the Application Data folder for the user account which is used to run Stellarium. Depending on the version of Windows and its configuration, this could be any of the following (each of these is tried, if it fails, the next in the list if tried).

Thus, on a typical Windows XP system with user “Bob Dobbs”, the user directory will be:

C:\Documents and Settings\Bob Dobbs\Application Data\Stellarium\

Thus, on a typical Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems with user “Bob Dobbs”, the user directory will be:

C:\Users\Bob Dobbs\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium\

Stellarium version 0.9.0 did use the %APPDATA%\Stellarium folder. Thus if a config.ini file exists in the %USERPROFILE%\Stellarium\ directory, that will be used in preference to the %APPDATA%\Stellarium\ directory. This is to prevent users of version 0.9.0 from losing their settings when they upgrade.

screenshot save directory Screenshots will be saved to the Desktop, although this can be changed with a command line option (see section Command Line Options[2]).

Mac OS X

installation directory This is found inside the application bundle, Stellarium.app. See the Inside Application Bundles for more information.

user directory This is the Library/Preferences/Stellarium/ (or ~/Library/Application Support/Stellarium on newest versions of Mac OS X) sub-directory of the users home directory.

screenshot save directory Screenshots are saved to the users Desktop.

Linux

installation directory This is in the share/stellarium sub-directory of the installation prefix, i.e. usually /usr/share/stellarium or /usr/local/share/stellarium/.

user directory This is the .stellarium sub-directory of users home directory, i.e. ~/.stellarium/.

screenshot save directory Screenshots are saved to the users home directory.

Directory Structure

Within the installation directory and user directory (defined in section Files and Directories), files are arranged in the following sub-directories.

landscapes/ contains data files and textures used for Stellarium's various landscapes. Each landscape has it's own sub-directory. The name of this sub-directory is called the landscape ID, which is used to specify the default landscape in the main configuration file.

skycultures/ contains constellations, common star names and constellation artwork for Stellarium's many sky cultures. Each culture has it's own sub-directory in the skycultures directory.

nebulae/ contains data and image files for nebula textures. In future Stellarium will be able to support multiple sets of nebula images and switch between them at runtime. This feature is not implemented for version 0.9.1, although the directory structure is in place - each set of nebula textures has it's own sub-directory in the nebulae directory.

stars/ contains Stellarium's star catalogues. In future Stellarium will be able to support multiple star catalogues and switch between them at runtime. This feature is not implemented for version 0.10.0, although the directory structure is in place - each star catalogue has it's own sub-directory in the stars directory.

If any file exists in both the installation directory and user directory, the version in the user directory will be used. Thus it is possible to override settings which are part of the main Stellarium installation by copying the relevant file to the user area and modifying it there.

It is also possible to add new landscapes by creating the relevant files and directories within the user directory, leaving the installation directory unchanged. In this manner different users on a multi-user system can customise Stellarium without affecting the other users.

The Main Configuration File

The main configuration file is read each time Stellarium starts up, and settings such as the observer's location and display preferences are taken from it. Ideally this mechanism should be totally transparent to the user - anything that is configurable should be configured “in” the program GUI. However, at time of writing Stellarium isn't quite complete in this respect, despite improvements in version 0.10.0. Some settings can only be changed by directly editing the configuration file. This section describes some of the settings a user may wish to modify in this way, and how to do it.

If the configuration file does not exist in the user directory when Stellarium is started (e.g. the first time the user starts the program), one will be created with default values for all settings (refer to section Files and Directories for the location of the user directory on your operating system). The name of the configuration file is config.ini[3].

The configuration file is a regular text file, so all you need to edit it is a text editor like Notepad on Windows, Text Edit on the Mac, or nano/vi/gedit etc. on Linux.

The following sub-sections contain details on how to make commonly used modifications to the configuration file. A complete list of configuration file values may be found in appendix Configuration file.

Command Line Options

Stellarium's behaviour can be modified by providing parameters to the program when it is run, via the command line. See table [tab:Command-line-options] for a full list.

Option

Option Parameter

Description

--help or -h

[none]

Print a quick command line help message and exit.

--version or -v

[none]

Print the program name and version information, and exit.

--config-file or -c

config file name

Specify the configuration file name. The default value is config.ini.

The parameter can be a full path (which will be used verbatim) or a partial path.

Partial paths will be searched for inside the regular search paths unless they start with a “.”, which may be used to explicitly specify a file in the current directory or similar.

For example, using the option -c my_config.ini would resolve to the file <user directory>/my_config.ini whereas -c ./my_config.ini can be used to explicitly say the file my_config.ini in the current working directory.

--restore-defaults

[none]

If this option is specified Stellarium will start with the default configuration. Note: The old configuration file will be overwritten.

--user-dir

path

Specify the user data directory.

--screenshot-dir

path

Specify the directory to which screenshots will be saved.

--full-screen

yes or no

Over-rides the full screen setting in the config file.

--home-planet

planet

Specify observer planet (English name).

--altitude

altitude

Specify observer altitude in meters.

--longitude

longitude

Specify latitude, e.g. +53d58'16.65"

--latitude

latitude

Specify longitude, e.g. -1d4'27.48"

--list-landscapes

[none]

Print a list of available landscape IDs.

--landscape

landscape ID

Start using landscape whose ID matches the passed parameter (dir name for landscape).

--sky-date

date

The initial date in yyyymmdd format.

--sky-time

time

The initial time in hh:mm:ss format.

--startup-script

script name

The name of a script to run after the program has started.

--fov

angle

The initial field of view in degrees.

--projection-type

ptype

The initial projection type (e.g. perspective).

Examples

To start Stellarium using the configuration file, configuration_one.ini situated in the user directory (use either of these):

To list the available landscapes, and then to start using the landscape with the ID, “ocean”

stellarium --list-landscapes
stellarium --landscape=ocean

Getting Extra Star Data

Stellarium is packaged with over 600 thousand stars in the normal program download, but much larger star catalogues may be downloaded using the tool which is in the Tools tab of the Configuration dialog.

Scripting

Since version 0.10.2 of Stellarium includes the beginnings of a new scripting engine. The new scripting engine is still in development - there are missing features and probably a lot of bugs.

Running Scripts

To run a script, open the Configuration dialog and go to the Scripts tab. A list of available scripts will be displayed in the list box on the left side. When a script name is selected by clicking on it, details about that script will be shown in the panel on the right side.

To run the selected script, click the run script button (looks like a play button found on a CD or DVD player).

Installing Scripts

To install a script, copy the script and any related files to <User Data Directory>/scripts/

Writing Scripts

Until the new script engine complete, documentation will not be added to the user guide. In the mean time the following resources may be helpful:

API Documentation. Scroll down to see the scripting overview with links to the scripting core object member functions.

The scripts in the Subversion repository. Many of these do not get installed because they are not so useful proof-of-concept things, but there are quite a few in there which would be helpful for someone trying to learn about the new scripting engine.

The stellarium-pubdevel mailing list.

Visual Effects

Light Pollution

Stellarium can simulate light pollution, which is controlled from the light pollution section of the Sky tab of the View window. Light pollution levels are set using an numerical value between 1 and 9 which corresponds to the Bortle Dark Sky Scale.

Light pollution domes visible in various directions over the horizon; zodiacal light is still visible, but not even halfway extending to the zenith at dusk or dawn; Milky Way above the horizon still impressive, but lacks most of the finer details; M33 a difficult averted vision object, only visible when higher than 55°; clouds illuminated in the directions of the light sources, but still dark overhead; surroundings clearly visible, even at a distance.

5

Suburban sky

orange

5.6 – 6.0

Only hints of zodiacal light are seen on the best nights in autumn and spring; Milky Way is very weak or invisible near the horizon and looks washed out overhead; light sources visible in most, if not all, directions; clouds are noticeably brighter than the sky.

6

Bright suburban sky

red

5.1 – 5.5

Zodiacal light is invisible; Milky Way only visible near the zenith; sky within 35° from the horizon glows grayish white; clouds anywhere in the sky appear fairly bright; surroundings easily visible; M33 is impossible to see without at least binoculars, M31 is modestly apparent to the unaided eye.

7

Suburban/urban transition

red

5.0 at best

Entire sky has a grayish-white hue; strong light sources evident in all directions; Milky Way invisible; M31 and M44 may be glimpsed with the naked eye, but are very indistinct; clouds are brightly lit; even in moderate-sized telescopes the brightest Messier objects are only ghosts of their true selves.

8

City sky

white

4.5 at best

Sky glows white or orange — you can easily read; M31 and M44 are barely glimpsed by an experienced observer on good nights; even with telescope, only bright Messier objects can be detected; stars forming familiar constellation patterns may be weak or completely invisible.

9

Inner City sky

white

4.0 at best

Sky is brilliantly lit with many stars forming constellations invisible and many weaker constellations invisible; aside from Pleiades, no Messier object is visible to the naked eye; only objects to provide fairly pleasant views are the Moon, the Planets and a few of the brightest star clusters.

Customising Landscapes

Adding Nebulae Images

Sky Cultures

Sky cultures are defined in the skycultures/ directory which may be found in the installation directory and/or user directory. Inside is one sub-directory per sky culture, each of these containing settings and image files as described in table bottom. Section names should be unique within the ssystem.ini file.

File

Purpose

constellation_names.eng.fab

This file contains a list of names for each constellation (from the three latter abbreviation of the constellation).

constellationsart.fab

This file contains the details of pictorial representations of the constellations. fields are:

Constellation abbreviation

image filename. This will be appended to .../skycultures/<culturename>/. Should include the .png extension. Note - this is case sensitive.

Star 1 x position in image (pixel)

Star 1 y position in image (pixel)

Star 1 HIP catalogue number

Star 2 x position in image (pixel)

Star 2 y position in image (pixel)

Star 2 HIP catalogue number

Star 3 x position in image (pixel)

Star 3 y position in image (pixel)

Star 3 HIP catalogue number

constellationship.fab

Describes the lines for the constellations. The fields are:

Constellation abbreviation

Number of lines

After this are pairs of HIP catalogue numbers which the lines are drawn between.

constellations_boundaries.dat

This file provides data to drawing the boundaries of the constellations.

Angle between rotational axis and perpendicular to orbital plane in degrees

rot_equator_ascending_node

float

Rotational parameter

sidereal_period

float

Rotational period in days

orbit_Period

float

Time for one full orbit in days

orbit_SemiMajorAxis

float

Keplarian orbital element

orbit_Eccentricity

float

Keplarian orbital element

orbit_Inclination

float

Keplarian orbital element

orbit_AscendingNode

float

Keplarian orbital element

orbit_LongOfPericenter

float

Orbital element used in ell_orbit calculations

orbit_MeanLongitude

float

Orbital element used in ell_orbit calculations

ascending

float

Orbital element used in ell_orbit calculations

hidden

boolean

Display planet as seen from other bodies, or not

orbit_TimeAtPericenter

float

Object parameter used in comet_orbit calculations

orbit_PericenterDistance

float

Object parameter used in comet_orbit calculations

orbit_MeanAnomoly

float

Object parameter used in comet_orbit calculations

orbit_ArgOfPericenter

float

Object parameter used in comet_orbit calculations

orbit_Epoch

float

JD epoch for orbit elements

orbit_visualization_period

float

Orbital period (in Earth's days) of body for visualization their orbits

landscape

string

default landscape for this body

minor_planet_number

integer

MPC number of minor planet (used only for asteroids)

rings

boolean

Has body rings?

rings_outer_size

float

Outer size of rings

rings_inner_size

float

Inner size of rings

tex_ring

string

File name of a PNG or JPEG texture file to be used as the “rings” image

type

string

Type of body (using for asteroids and comets)

Orbital calculations for the major planets is handled by sophisticated custom algorithms, and are accurate for a comparatively long time. For asteroids and comets the calculations are not as accurate, and the data in ssystem.ini for these bodies should be updated periodically (every year or two).

At present this must be done manually by editing the ssystem.ini file.

Landscape ID: the ID for a landscape to be used with thiis location, or empty means “use default”.

.../data/user_locations.txt

The same format as base_locations.txt. This file is added to when auser defines a new location, and is usually found in the user data directory area, rather than the installation area.

.../stars/*/name.fab

This file defines the Flamsteed designation for a star (see section Flamsteed Designation). Each line of the file contains one record of two fields, separated by the pipe character (|). The first field is the Hipparcos catalogue number of the star, the second is the Flamsteed designation, e.g:

72370|α_Aps

.../data/zone.tab

Time zone information.

Taking Screenshots

You can save what is on the screen to a file by pressing Control-S. Screenshots are taken in .png format, and have filenames something like this: stellarium-000.png, stellariuim-001.png (the number increments to prevent over-writing existing files).

Stellarium creates screenshots in different directories depending in your system type, see section Files and Directories.

Plugins

Stellarium has been greatly expanded since version 0.10.2 with compiled static plug ins. By this method many add-ons for specific use can be added without modifying the program core. There are many plug ins now available that can be loaded at start up and be available within the program. as each plug in is loaded an icon is placed in the bottom menu bar. At present Version 0.12.3 there are 17 plug ins bundled with the release version of Stellarium. These include:

Telescope Control. Stellarium has a simple control mechanism for motorised telescope mounts. The user selects an object (i.e. by clicking on something - a planet, a star etc.) and presses the telescope go-to key (see section []) and the telescope will be guided to the object.

Multiple telescopes may be controlled simultaneously.

The control interface uses the Meade or the Celestron protocol and most telescopes use either one or the other so many different brands of telescopes can be controlled. There is a third party Telescope control system going under the name of ASCOM. They provide an interface to stellarium and then translate the control into many other forms

Multiple telescopes may be controlled simultaneously.

WARNING: Stellarium will not prevent your telescope from being pointed at the Sun. It is up to you to ensure proper filtering and safety measures are applied!

AngleMeasure. Measures the angle and distance between objects on the visible screen

When this plug in is active you can place the cursor on any object and drag the mouse to another object. The program will calculate the angular distance between the objects

CompassMarks. places a scale of degrees around the horizon

When active this places a 360 degree scale around the horizon.

Exoplanets. A list of stars with planets around that can be displayed from an editable data base - exoplanets.json

When active this plug in reads the associated exoplanets.json file and places on the item with a name.

Oculars. This places a window on the screen that corresponds to the view through a telescope or on a camera. It reads from an editable data base.

When this plug in is active a window will appear around the selected object depicting what would be seen by the viewing object. On the top right hand side of the screen a menu will appear that can be used to select the viewing device eg. Camera, Eyepiece. This menu is filled with items from the ocular.ini file in the modules\oculars folder. his file can be edited from the Plugins menu screen or by a text editor.

Pulsars. A list of Pulsars that can be displayed from an editable data base.

When active this plug in reads the associated pulsars.json file and places in blue around the pulsar with a name

Quasars. A list of Quasars that can be displayed from an editable data base

When active this plug in reads the associated pulsars.json file and places in red around the pulsar with a name

RendererStatistics.A list of statistics from the operation of the program

When activated displays statistics about the renderer

Satellites. This displays a number of earth orbiting satellies. automatically updated every 72 hours from the internet.

This plug in reads information on a selected range of near earth orbiting satellites from a file satellites.json that is updated every 72 hours and displays
with a name. The file is editable with a text editor to change the colour and visibility when required.

Observability. This shows times and availabilty of objects you may wish to see

SolarSystemEditor. This can be used to find and include orbital data on Solar System objects and added to the ssystem.ini file

SuperNova. A list of Super Novas that can be displayed from an editable data base.

When Historical SuperNova is active follow the instructions from the plugin screen to display the supernova. This may require resetting the date to the listed date.

TextUserInterface (TUI). A way to change many parameters from the Stellarium Program

The text user interface is basically for the use in planetariums. When the plug in is loaded it can be opened and closed with “m”. This will pace the entry point on the lower left of the screen which may be obscured by the landscape. To use it you scroll through the options with the arrow keys and press enter when the desired function is listed.

TimeZoneConfiguration. Used to manipulate the time zone of the display.

References

↑ The installation directory was referred to as the config root directory in previous versions of this guide

↑ Windows Vista users who do not run Stellarium with administrator priviliges should adjust the shortcut in the start menu to specify a different directory for screenshots as the Desktop directory is not writable for normal progams. The next release of Stellarium will include a GUI option to specify the screenshot directory.

↑ It is possible to specify a different name for the main configuration file using the --config-file command line option. See section Command Line Options for details.

↑ Not all files in the .../data directory are listed here - only the ones which the advanced user is most likely to want to modify.